Next week is the U.S. Presidential Election, marking the end of more than two years of campaigning by presidential hopefuls, the primaries, and finally the campaigning of the nominees. However, this election is only one of many, many elections throughout the world this year; in fact, according to the New York Times, “more people are voting for leaders in 2024 than any in any previous year.” Taiwan, Indonesia, South Africa, India, Britain, and Mexico, all had elections. The U.S. election on November 5th, will be the last major election of this year. Spain was also included in that list, having had its European Union Parliament election on June 9th.
One interesting thing I noticed (and, to be honest, appreciated!) about the Spanish election was that, until about ten days before the election, I wasn’t even aware there was one coming up. On May 30th, I woke up and the streetlights were lined with campaign banners for the different parties. The kiosks held advertisements for voting. Having grown up in the U.S., I was used to the months and months (and sometimes seemingly years-long process of endless campaigning, advertising, and news cycles to choose our elected leaders, no race being longer than the U.S. presidential one. So it was with tremendous surprise that I googled, “Spanish elections 2024” and learned that the election was a mere ten days away!
And on June 10th, the day after the election? The banners were gone, replaced with new ones advertising the latest exhibition at Caixaforum.
I can, and did, vote in the U.S. election, thanks to a law called the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. But I did not miss the onslaught of political ads, phone calls, yard signs, and everything else that inundates U.S. life in the months before an election. I was glad to be here in Spain for this election, to see how things could be done a different way.
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